Leadership & Service

Key administrative initiatives

Research and graduate education

• Proposed a more accurate method of accounting for internal research expenditures. It was implemented by the current VP for Research and has helped WMU become an emerging R1 institution.
• Designed a simplified administrator incentive program for administrators holding research funding.
• Reorganized the Technology and Commercialization Unit after major budget cuts and staff loss.
• Helped shepherd policies on intellectual property, conflict of interest, and research misconduct through the WMU Faculty Senate.
• Helped lead development of a proposal to establish a funded undergraduate research program in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
• Developed an internal graduate application processing app for the college to streamline application processing.
• Created opportunity for faculty to increase research proposals and expenditures through curriculum reorganization and a course buyout structure.

Programs and partnerships

• Helped develop a proposal for a STEM workforce development program funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
• Helped develop a proposal for a multi-million dollar bequest to WMU that includes an endowed professorship in the Department of Computer Science.
• Worked with Iraqi government representatives to bring 25 faculty from Iraqi universities to the Department of Computer Science to earn a Ph.D. in computer science.
• Conducted the first personal visits from a chair to Department of Computer Science alumni in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.
• Helping to develop a Silicon Valley Industrial Advisory Board for the Department of Computer Science.

Faculty

• Led the hiring of the department’s first NSF CAREER award and first NIH award recipient.
• Successfully mentored six faculty members in the Department of Computer Science at WMU to tenure.

Degree-program development and accreditation work is listed on the teaching page.

Professional activities

External program review

• Chicago State University
• East Carolina University
• University of Botswana
• ABET Program Evaluator for the Computing Accreditation Commission — Computer Science

Conference program committees

• ACM SIGMICRO MICRO-29 (1996)
• ACM SIGPLAN PLDI (1997)
• Euromicro MPCS (1998, 2002)
• ACM PACT (2003, 2005, 2008)
• ACM MSP (2005)
• ACM Computing Frontiers (2005)
• ASEE North-Central Section Conference (2025)

Conference organizing committees

• ACM PACT 2002
• ASEE North-Central Section Conference 2024
• Judge, Kalamazoo Math and Science Center Research Competition, 2023

University service

Western Michigan University

• WMU Faculty Senate
  2018 – 2021
• WMU Senate Research Policy Committee
  2019 – 2021
• Chaired chair-search committees

  Electrical and Computer Engineering; Engineering Design and Manufacturing; Mechanical Engineering

Michigan Technological University

• Graduate Program Director

  Department of Computer Science
  1996 – 2003, 2006 – 2010
• MTU University Senate
  1998 – 2000, 2001 – 2002
• Graduate Faculty Council

  Secretary, 2000–01
  2000 – 2002
• Undergraduate adviser
  2000 – 2009
• University Academic Integrity Committee
  2005 – 2008
• College of Sciences & Arts Promotion and Tenure Committee

  Chair, 2007–09
  2006 – 2009
• University Committee on Academic Tenure, Promotion and Reappointment
  2009 – 2010
• Mediator for AAUP grievances
  2012 – 2016
• Bargaining team member, Teaching Assistants Union negotiations
  2014 – 2015